Lotva Shai
Lotva Shai is a Yuuzhan Vong of the Intendant caste, one of a handful of those who are old enough to remember the Invasion that commenced 25 ABY. History and Early Life. Born to Dranae Shai before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Lotva Shai spent her early life, training as a warrior in her domain's creche. Though the caste of a warrior was her's by birthright, she did not excel as well as her crechemates in her training, and thus - as dictated by true caste society - was placed in the Intendant caste to live the life of a bureaucrat. There she was trained in their own unique forms of diplomacy and deception, with the latter being the mainstay of their 'code' - paying a fitting tribute to the goddess which they worshipped, Yun-Harla, the trickster. Fortunately for her Lotva Shai progressed well and was promoted to the basic rank of attendant upon her coming of age ceremony, during which she acquired the first of many implants and ritual scarrings. Mere klekkets (two standard infidel months) before the Praetorite Vong's attempts to invade the infidel's galaxy, she attained the rank of executor, by default, having killed her superior after being issued a challenge over a matter of an unmet-quota. As such, she was one of the few tasked with preparing the way for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of worlds in the invasion corridoor, often acting as an inside agent in organizations crucial to securing the worlds/sectors they represented. By the end of the Yuuzhan Vong war, she had attained the rank of Consul, for her war efforts and exceptional success rate in procuring valuable information, but her position was short-lived, as soon thereafter, the occupation of Coruscant was over, and Supreme Overlord Shimrra's forces had been decimated. Forced into exile with the rest of her people, she traveled to Zonama Sekot, where she was placed in the trial settlement of La'okio, tasked with pioneering the intergration of the castes with the shamed. The experiment abhorrently failed, with those members of society seizing control of assets that they deemed rightfully theirs, and a large divide forming between those Yuuzhan Vong who believed in the true way, or the old ways of being, and the ways of Sekot. Founding The Traditionalist Movement. "We are the Traditionalists, you who name yourselves Loyalists are not fit to bear the title of children of the gods!" '''- Lotva Shai denouncing those who remianed loyal to Sekot and the GA.' Not content to live the rest of her life in ignominy, Lotva Shai set out to unite the true caste Yuuzhan Vong once more in an uprising against the shamed and the ferroans, forming the extreme group of individuals known as the 'traditionalists', who clung tightly to the old traditions, and abhor anything remotely non-yuuzhan vong. Steadfast in their convictions, the traditionalists hoped to reclaim sekot as their own, and the occupation of the living world, by others such as the ferroans and in days passed, the Grey Jedi, became one of their main ports of vengance. Fearing neither pain, nor death, the then young Yuuzhan Vong female was a ruthless force to be reconned with, stopping at little to bring forth the will of the true gods and taking a domain-specific perverse delight in the suffering and torment of others, both of her own species and through devastating displays of xenophobic torture. As word of the traditionalists spread across the settlements of Sekot, the world's living consciousness was called on by the Grey Jedi after the devastation caused by a traditionalist attack on both their praxeum and a neighbouring settlement full of extolled Yuuzhan Vong loyalists, threatened to break the peace between all factions. Sekot in turn wrought havoc on the Traditionalist forces that were moving into place, set to implement a bid to obliterate a Grey Jedi encampment via means of testing a bio weapon - developed by the shapers under the constant scrutiny of Shai - that contained a midichlorian attacking enzyme specifically engineered to be used against the Jedi. Present among those caught up in the storms Sekot had exacted upon them to prevent the attack being carried out, Lotva Shai was forced to rethink their strategy. In what appeared to be a mass exodus, Shai ordered the main body of traditionalist forces to leave Sekot for other uninhabited worlds within the unknown regions, utilizing several Koros Strohna worldships in the process. Unknown to the rest of the traditionalists, however, Lotva Shai had recently entered into something of a coallition with a mysterious benefactor who had supposedly procured the ancient vessels from beyond the outer reaches of the galaxy. He, also Yuuzhan Vong, named himself only as Prefect Drag'hul, claimed to be working on the behalf of one who had heard of the traditionalist plight and wished to combine both military resources and forces with the traditionalists themselves on one condition; the traditionalists swore their allegiance to Drag'hul's master as their supreme Overlord. Confident in her ability to turn the situation around, should the need arise, Lotva saw many beneficial aspects to the proposed arrangement, and agreed to terms, keeping the Prefect under close watch at all times. Tenuous Alliances ''"The question is not who I am, but what I can do for you." '- Prefect Drag'hul to Lotva Shai'' Shai and Drag'hul soon learned that they shared a natural affinity towards one another and agreed on most aspects of their plans and pantheon, together they concocted the idea of mass producing the previously failed Jedi-rending bioweapon on the worlds now being colonized by their forces in the unknown regions. It would be both Drag'hul and Lotva Shai who personally saw to the field testing of this weapon in situe, infiltrating the Galactic Alliance capital of Coruscant in 40ABY. Purposefully tracking down a known Jedi on world, their trail lead them to a popular cantina and nightspot in the world's mid sector. The plan had been to release the bioweapon as descreetly as possible, but before they could do so, an unrelated brawl broke out in the cantina and amid the chaos, Lotva Shai - then adorned with an ooglith masquer - was unmasked. Confronted with the reality, many of the patrons coming from worlds left devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong, took up arms in order to exact revenge of their own kind, when the Jedi stepped in in an attempt to defend her. Astounded and outraged, Shai revealed the true nature of her being there, proclaiming that the traditionalists would have revenge on all who had attempted to divert the gods will to their end - then deployed the weapon in plain sight. While all of those present were then contaminated, it was only the Jedi who suffered the most dire consequences since the bioweapon required an excess of a highly concentrated ammount of midichlorians to work. Once mobilized the enzymes went to work effectively breaking down the host's soft tissues from within. Many civillians effected suffered what the shapers might have called minor side effects akin to the Ithorian flu, nausea, the vomiting of blood and soft tissue irritation. This did, of course, vary from species to species and was not, in all cases, lethal. Drag'hul having observed the entire affair whilst adorned with the Yuuzhan Vong surveilance creature, a grub-like Chilab, fled the scene with Lotva Shai, the pair escaping into the coruscanti underworld for cover. Despite all attempts, GA security were unable to locate the twosome, who eventually found safe passage off world, disguised as local civillians. The chilab's information was later transferred to a villip, which later found it's way into the hands of the Jedi themselves via means of a warning. The Jedi were to take this matter very seriously, and a call was put out to travel to Zonama Sekot in order to find Shai and her companion. This mission was unsuccessful since the traditionalists had already relocated by this time. Unforseen Cirumstances "Phagh! At your age I would not have considered it possible for all of your anatomy to continue working!" '-Lotva Shai to Prefect Drag'hul upon discovering her pregnancy . '' Sometime during the Jedi debacle, it is believed that Lotva Shai and Drag'hul's relationship became more than something of a political and militant one. The two were regularly found in eachothers company and shared private quarters aboard the worldship'' Banuu Korr'' for a time. Whilst both wished to downplay their affair, possibly due to the Prefect's age being twice that of her own, this became problematic when Lotva Shai suspected she may be carrying the Prefect's crecheling. This was later confirmed by the shapers, who indicated that she was already a standard Klekket gone. Angered by what she considered to be an unseemly consequence of their trysting, Shai confronted Drag'hul agressively in outrage, rebuking him for his lack of foresight, which was, in effect, also her own. Thus ensued a brief fight, during which both sustained minor injuries, before finding their composure and deciding to deal with the problem at hand. While Shai's pregnancy was not heretical, as both parents were of the same caste, it was frowned upon for females over a certain rank to bear children outside of extenuating circumstances - such as a strong bloodline- or orders. Knowing this could affect their factions' opinion of her, she chose to keep the matter a secret for as long as possible, continuing on with her duties throughout the entire term. 5 Klekkets (10 months) later, Lotva gave birth to a son, Azca Shai, who was placed in her domain's creche, as opposed to his fathers, to further conceal his identity. Bitter Defeat I have failed you. The Jeedai are so close to discovering a means of destroying my work, their minds have undone me, Yun-Ne'shel no longer looks upon me with favour. - '''Tsiing Yim''' The outright success of the biotoxin was a short lived one, as the weapon's creator, Tsiing Yim, was captured by a Jedi strike team sent to destroy the weapon if possible. And unknown to the Traditionalist Yuuzhan Vong, their enemies were already creating a powerful antidote to the problem, this was not without it's difficulties, since the complex concoction had been engineered using Yuuzhan Vong methods, the Jedi decided that they would need to procure a Yuuzhan Vong shaper in order to unlock the secrets of the toxin. Tsiing Yim, mistaken for a loyalist, was taken from where she was in hiding upon Sekot, and transported to an undisclosed location somewhere in the core. Knowing that if she were discovered, she would be used as leverage, Tsiing Yim took it upon herself to gain the trust of her Jedi keepers, doing precisely what they asked whilst engineering coomb spores in secret with the intent to filter them into the most utilized areas of the complex. Her life forfeit, the shaper sent one last transmission to Lotva Shai before releasing the coomb spores into a chamber that the Jedi were using as makeshift sleeping quarters. All infected, it remained a mystery to all weather the Jedi or the shaper survived, as upon investigation by Jedi master Lina Inverse and her padawan, the complex was found deserted. Due to the fact that Lotva Shai has never commented on this turn of events, many among her own kind and the Jedi alike, assume that she had something to do with this insidious disappearence. This remains to be seen. Stung by the crushing defeat of having the Jedi avert their plans, Lotva and the traditionalists were forced to rethink their strategy, laying quiescent in the outer rim and unknown regions for many years. During this time, many agents were sent forth on the orders of Prefect Drag'hul to infiltrate organizations across the galaxy. It is unknown just how or why Lotva Shai and Drag'hul parted ways, many assume that over the years he simply died of old age, whilst Shai, herself, has never revealed the true answer, she still holds him in high regard.